Well, after 10 days in Las Vegas, I am finally home. Here is a brief summary of the week, followed by a highlight video by our very own Jim Cole.
Day 1 – Chris Eagen won $63 on the flight out to Vegas. We knew we were off to a good start… until Steve Dennis suggested that we could walk to the convention center. After 45 minutes of walking in the mid-day Las Vegas heat, we finally arrive at the convention center. On the walk back, Steve discovers that last time he made the walk it was to the Sands Convention Center, not the Las Vegas Convention Center. Great.
Day 2- Set-up. We arrived at the convention center at 7am. By noon, we were on a roll. Having Jim and Bob there definitely helped speed up the process, since they created the booth! Kristen had to perform minor surgery on Jim’s slivers with a razor blade and Bob cut open his hand.
Day 3 – Set-up. The booth is up, now it’s time for product placement. Thankfully, Keith flew in from California to help us out. At around 3:30, we realized that Mario was missing. His flight was supposed to arrive in from Miami around 10:30 in the morning. He spent the day on a shuttle bus, trying to find the man who inadvertently took Mario’s luggage off of the bus! (I’m pleased to announce, Mario did manage to get his luggage back).
Day 4 – Set-up – We split up today. Some of us were in meetings and the rest were at the convention center finishing up with the set-up.
Day 5 – Walk-through. We walked the entire sales staff through the booth. We pointed out some great new product that Stampede will be carrying in the future. (Call your Customer Relationship Manager today, for more information!)
Day 6 – The Big Book of AV breakfast. Stampede hosted a breakfast at their booth in order to thank all of those who participated in the Big Book of AV. The Big Book was a huge success and drew a lot of people to the Stampede booth.
Day 7 – Show Day 2 – The Mustang Girls signed posters and took pictures. We saw a lot of traffic and chatted with a lot of people.
Day 8 – Final Show Day – The day went by so quickly. One minute, we were chatting with people, and the next, it was time to begin taking the booth apart. We some how managed to get everything done within record time.
Day 9 – We got to the convention center bright and early in the morning to finish packing up the booth. Thankfully, all of our crates had arrived and we had a dedicated crew who wanted to get done as quickly as possible. We managed to finish up around 4 and treated ourselves to a quick trip to the hotel pool.
Day 10 – The final four made it to the airport, grabbed some food, and settled in for our long and bumpy voyage home. Nothing like being delayed almost an hour to really make the time pass quickly…. Finally, arrived in Buffalo at 1:30am. Good times!
All in all, we had a great time in Las Vegas and Stampede had a fantastic show. We worked hard and played hard and bonded with our co-workers.
Thank you to Bob G., Jim, Chris, Steve, Keith, Paul, Rich, Andrew, Mansur, Mario, Brian, Bob A., Mark T., Kevin, Jeff and Mark W. And as always, a big thanks to the Mustang Girls – Lisa, Tanea, Maggie, Lauren, Laurie, Kristina and Lindsay!
Next stop, CEDIA!